It abd sohultze



. my invention,

JOHANN F. E. SCHUL'QZE, OF POTSDAM, PRUSSIA, ASSIGNOR, TO HIMSELF AND-H.M. G. WERNIOH, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRlU'l. OF COLUMBIA lWlPROVEDGUNPQWDER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,789, dated J 111102, 186:3.

To all whom it may concern:

. Be it known that I, J OHANN Fsnnnrcn En- UARD SGHULTZE, of the Kingdomof Prussia, have invented anew and improved explosive powder,'applicableto the purposesto which ordinary gunpowder is applied; and I do herebydeclare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, ofthe elements of its composition, and of the process of its manufacture.

The'fundamental element ofthe explosive compound, is wood, or, perhaps,more properly speaking, woody fiber, which, .after due mechanical andchemical'treatment, is converted into this compound. In the first stepof this manufacture I take any species of wood-such as poplar, linden,ash, oak, &c.--inthe form of logs or boards, and divide them up, by sawing or otherwise, into thin sheets or veneers. The harder kinds ofwood make a more explosive powder, and therefore the best for'themanufacture of that kind used for mining purposes.

The manufacture of this powder as a whole may be very appropriatelydivided into three processes, sufliciently distinct in themselves fordistinctive description, and to he described under their several heads.1

1. Mechanical preparation of the material.-

- As before remarked, the wood to be used is to be reduced, by sawing orotherwise, to thin sheets or veneers of about the one-sixteenth of aninch in thickness when the powder to be made is for ordinary small-arms.As the thickness of these plates or veneers determines the size of thegrain of the powder, this thickness may be lessened or increased to suitthe grains to the purposes to which the powder is to be applied. Theseplates or veneers are then passed under or through apunchingmachine-such, for instance, as is used in the manufacture ofcards. The diameter of the punches should be about the same as thethickness of the plates or veneers, as this gives a regularity ofstructure to the granular mass ofthe powder. I do not deem it necessaryto describe the machinery necessary for this purpose, as it constitutesno part of and any good mechanic can readily construct one sulficientfor the accomphshment ofv this simple operation. The cylinders of thewood thus formed constitute the part to be used in the further processesfor the manufacture of the best kind of powder. The,

around the periphery and at aboutone-eightlh of an inch from each other.When passed through such rollers the plates or veneers will be cut intostrips of the width, of course, of the space between the cutters-thatis, this would be the-case it one set of rollers only were used; but-Ifind the better plan to be to pass a cuttiugreller ever-the plates orveneersiu one dis rection and another across them in a line at a. rightangle to the former. I thus cut the whole plate or veneer at once, as itwere, into the desired form. The material thus produced can beadvantageously used for thepreparation of such powder as is used infortifications and the navy, but is not so well adapted .to landservice, as the irregularities in the form of the grains render themliable to injury from abrasion. If. I adopt the first plan suggested forcutting these reticulated plates or veneers into strips-that is, bypassing them through rollers with cuttersl still adopt the planmentioned or some other for cutting them transversely, that the wholemay be reduced to the condition of a coarse irregular-grained powder.

' lI. Ghemicaltreatmentofthegranulatedwoody materz'aL-The chemicaltreatmentof the grain s produced by the foregoing operation to convertthem into the explosive powder may be advantageously described under thefollowing heads: first, the removal of acids and othereasily-solublesubstances; second, the removal of the proteins, albumen,&c.; third, the re moval of the coloring-matters; fourth, submission ofthe grains to the action of nitric acid; fifth, saturation of the grainswith salts containing oxygen and nitrogen.

1. The removal of acids and other. easily-soluble substances-Into akettle, which I prefer to .be of copper and of a suitable size, .is tobe put as much water holding three pounds of car-- bonate of soda insolution as will freely float one hundred pounds of the grains prepared.as described under head I. This amount of the grain being introduced andstirred up with the alkaline solution, the whole is boiled to- .getherfor three or four hours. At the end of this time the liquid, becomingdis'cblored, is

Q removed and a fresh supply added and the boiling continued for-threeor four hours more.

-' The grains are then removed and exposed for,

twenty-four hours to a current of fresh and .cold ruuninghwater.

2. Removal of the proteins; albumen, at.

' The grains from the operation 1, having been dried, are placed inboxes oi sheet-iron or other ""propermaterial having I a colander orsieve like bottom and steam passed through them for about fifteenminutes. The proteins and albumen are thus separated and pass off withthe water of condensation from the. steam.

' After this 'the'grains are again placed in cold fresh and runningwater for about twenty-four hours, and then dried.

,3. The removal of the coloring-matter.-This might perhaps with equalpropriety be called the bleaching process. To accomplislithispurpose thegrains may be treated with a so-" lution of chloride of lime, or withchlorine gas. It chloride of lime be used, about fifteen pounds of thesalt is'dissolved in about two hundredand sixty (260) pints of water inan air-tight vessel. The dried grains. from operation 2 are placed inanother vessel and so much of the solution of the chloride poured jchlorine gas is used the grains from operation 2 are placed inapropervessel and the gas passed freely through them until thediscoloration is accomplished. They are then subjected to'tliewashingdescribed above, when the chloride solution is used and thendried.

4. Submission of thefgrains to the action of nitric acid. As apreliminary step. in the operation, forty (40) parts, by weight, ofconcen tratcd nitric acid'of aspeciiic gravity 051.48 to 1.50 are mixedwith one hundred (100).paits, by weight, of concentrated sulphuric acidof specific gravity of 1.84, the mixtureof the acid to be constantlystirred oragitated for about two hours, when it is to beset aside insome cool place for use Then in-an iron or other suitable vessel, aroundwhich cold water should be keptconstantly circulating, or by some otherappropriate arrangement the vessel should be ,constantly subject to arefrigerating process,

one-hundred par'ts,'by weight, ofthese mixed acidsare placed, and six.(6) parts, by weight, of the grains gradually added, stirring thc wholeconstantly for two or three hours, at'the end of which time theoperation will be com-' pleted. The grains are then separated from theadhering acid by drainin them into a centrifu gal machine, or by anyother process capable of accomplishing the same purpose. The 7centrifugalapparatus I prefcr, as it is well known that inoisture can bythe action of this I machine be promptly and successfully removed; Asthis machine is well known and used in 1 sugar-refineries, laundries,&c'.-, a'descrip'tion.

of it is not deemed necessary. The grains re- V moved from thecentrifugal machine. areagain I placed in cool fresh running water fortwo or.

three days; then again boiled up in a weak solution of carbonate ofsoda'and again ex posed for twenty-four hours to cool fresh runningwater and then dried. This briugs'the grains to a state in which they.may be stored away for the final op eration, or they may he. proceededwith at once, as follows: 5. Saturation of the grains with a salt orsalts;

containing oxygen and n-itrogen.--The salts used g a v in this operationare nitrate of potassatsaltpeter) and nitrate of barytes. The two may beused together,orthe tormer(nitra.teofpotassa) When both salts are useda'solution I alone. of them is made by dissolving 22.5 parts of thenitrate of pntassa and 7 .5 parts of the nitrate ofbarytes in twohundred andtwenty parts of water at 112 Fahrenheit and stirring up in itone hundred parts ofthe grains, prepared as above described, .for ten orfifteen minutes.

When only the one"salt(nitrate of potassa) is used dissolve twenty-sixparts thereof in the above, amount (two hundred and twenty parts).

of water at 67.59'Fahienheit and treatone hundred parts of the grains inthe same man ner as when both salts are used. The grains having thusbeen subjected to the action the salt or salts containing nitrogen andoxygen in their composition are removed to a room or chamber having thetemperature in its air kept at from 90 to 112 Fahrenheit, where'theyshould remain from twelve to eighteen hours to I bethoroughlydried.'Afterthistheyarcdusted by 'means of adrum or screen. The process is Jthen completed and the powder ready for use. The numbers given in thepreceding descrip-Q tion have been found to give the best results I andto yield a powder of the finest qualities; 1 but it is not to; beunderstood that my invention requires a rigid adherence. to them incarryingit out; on the contrary, many changes. may be" made withoutdeparting from its spirit or afl'ecting the principles upon which it isf founded. If it is desired to avoid the dangers of transportation towhich all such explosive compounds are exposed, the final process, asdescribed under 5, Sec. II, may be delayed and the materials themselvesthat is, the grains of 4-and the salts or their solutions{nitrateofpotassa and nitrate ofbarytes) trans ported to the place atwhich the powder isre quired and the final process completed there.-

As neithenthe grains nor the salts separately arc exploslve we avoid allcauses of danger j grains dried.

advantages which this possesses over the ordinary gunpowderz I andapprehension from themostdifliculttransportation over the most distantroads by this "In ans. 7 K

. -II. Utilizing the dust from. thesifted powden-The' dust produced bythe several-operations'as described amounts sometimes to ten or twelveper cent. of v the whole mess. To utilize this powder or dust it isinixedintom paste with water or gum-water and rolled or spread .out intosheets of about threeeighths' of au inch-in thickness. These sheets arethen put under a powerful hydraulic or other press and reduced to thethickness of the-plates or veneers described'in the first part of thisspeci lication-that is, about .the one-sixteenth of au inch. Thesesheets are then punched in [the same way as the plates or veneers andthe The powder produced by this Qperation on the dust is the best forrifled small-arms.

The following may be stated as the leading explosive compound First. Ithas for equal weights from three to {our times the strengh of gunpowder,while its weight is only about one-third.

Second. It can be manufactured at less cost than gunpowder.

's-Third'. Its explosive effect is more regular than gunpowder inconsequence of the greater uniformity in the size and character of itsgrains.

Fourth. Its volatile products, being chiefly oxygen, the vapor of water,nitrogen, and a small quantity of carbonic acid, are not oftensive tothe lungs, while those from gunpowder are well known to be exceedinglyso. The volatile products from my powder are lighter than atmosphericair and quickly disappear. In

sucha. way that it actor, and mode wood and the complete combustion ofall the elements of the powder.

Sixth. It admits of being manufactured in may be stored or transportedwithout any dangerfrom explosion.

Having thus fully explained the nature, charof preparing my invention,what I claim therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States, is

1. The production of grains or particles from plates, sheets, or veneersof wood, substantially in the manner set forth.

2. The preparation of these grains or partieles of woody substance,substantially in the manner set forth,for conversion into an explosivepowder. p

3. (Jombiniugthegraiusorparticlesofwoodor woody substance thus preparedwith salts containing oxygen'and nitrogen in their composition fortheproduction of an explosive powder, substantially as set forth.

' 4. The preparation of the dust or line powder resulting from thepreceding operations for the production of an explosive powder.

5. The granulated explosive powder produced by the process hereinbeforedescribed.

JOHANN resume roman scuntrzr.

Witnesses:

WALTHER BAUENDAHL, W. V. SonULTz. l

